Aerospace

On one side Amazon, Google, Uber; and the other FedEx, UPS, DHL—are all looking hard at the potential for autonomous and electric aircraft to bring new ways of transporting goods and people.

Business jet demand was once linked to a wide array of economic indicators, especially equities markets and corporate profits. Since 2008, these links have broken down.

Aurora Flight Sciences plans ground tests and flight demonstrations to prove the efficiency improvements promised by MIT’s unconventional “double-bubble” D8 twin-aisle short-/medium-range airliner concept.

While everything still hinges on the precooler technology of Reaction Engines’ Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE), the Air Force Research Laboratory sees huge potential for the propulsion concept

AeroVironment developed its Blackwing small unmanned aircraft system to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for submerged submarines. Now the company has demonstrated how its UAS can act as a digital communications relay, enabling the sub to control a swarm of unmanned underwater vehicles.

Double-bubble D8, Blended Wing Body, Transonic Truss-Braced Wing, Hybrid Wing Body and a small-airliner-size BWB – the configurations NASA is considering for planned ultra-efficient subsonic transport demonstrators.

As NASA widens its search for ultra-efficient X-plane demonstrators, little-known design house Dzyne Technologies unveils its proposal for a blended wing-body business jet and small airliner.

Reaction Engines is firming up plans to build a fighter engine-size ground demonstrator of its reusable hypersonic propulsion system.

United Launch Alliance is taking the first steps along an alternate path involving recovery of only the first-stage engines.

Risk of injury from drones falling on people’s heads appears to be less than expected, but a small UAS hitting an aircraft will not be the same as a birdstrike, initial research indicates.

Israel’s ducted-rotor cargo UAS; distributed flaps improve efficiency; submarine-launched drone tested; Prodrone’s grasping, clinging UAS; DARPA’s counter-UAS Dragnet.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has released a new video explaining the technology behind Auto-GCAS, and detailed multiple saves by the system.

Eric Dautriat has retired as executive director of Clean Sky after seven years leading Europe’s major public-private partnership for civil aeronautics research.

When aerospace executives look at digital opportunities, too many use the traditional technology lens without sufficiently evaluating business model impacts.

With about $40 million a year to spend, the agency’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project has so far funded 15 subprojects in three annual selection rounds.

Now that connectivity is virtually a given, airlines are beginning to look up and down the value chain for low-cost upgrades that generate big savings.

Video footage from the HUD of a U.S. Air Force F-16 records the dramatic moment when its unconscious pilot is saved from certain death by the aircraft’s Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System.

UAS in the news: Mercedes and Matternet team on drone logistics; Google’s Project Wing delivers burritos; Mitre names counter-UAS winners; Vayu flies medical samples in Madagascar; DJI tests show value of drones for search and rescue.

There are key differences between the defense spending cycle that consensus believes will unfold in 2016-20 and prior cycles.

Boeing’s Sutter, who died last month at 95, had a huge influence on what may be the two most important commercial aircraft of the late 20th century.

The tests could be a small but important stepping-stone toward further development of the BWB concept as a military tanker-transport.

Flights of Elbit’s long-endurance Hermes demonstrate potential commercial applications for large UAS in agriculture and infrastructure inspection.

The science of developing reliable sensor systems to warn pilots of engine core icing at high altitudes has made some headway, but is in its relative infancy.

Sonic boom and turbulence; origami morphing structures; damage-indicating paint; interior inspection by UAS; Phantom Eye becomes museum exhibit.

Tests of the L1 adaptive control law will assess its ability to control the VISTA F-16 over a range of flight conditions and simulated failures.